Merck & Co.
US pharmaceutical company, known as MSD outside the US and Canada.
Merck & Co.'s joint venture Hilleman Laboratories put a Bundibugyo ebolavirus vaccine candidate into clinical-trial production on 31 July 2026, one strand of manufacturing work inside a pharmaceutical operation many times its size.
Last refreshed: 31 July 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Why can't Merck's licensed Ebola vaccine cover the Bundibugyo species?
Timeline for Merck & Co.
Provided manufacturing expertise via Hilleman Laboratories
Pandemics and Biosecurity: CEPI puts a Bundibugyo vaccine in trialsBackground
Merck & Co., known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, with a portfolio spanning oncology, vaccines, animal health and hospital medicines sold worldwide.
Its vaccines franchise includes licensed shots against the Zaire strain of Ebola, and a separate $30m programme is improving MSD's manufacturing of that rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine. Manufacturing partnerships extend its reach into diseases too commercially marginal to develop alone.
One such partnership is Merck's stake in Hilleman Laboratories, its Singapore-based joint venture with the Wellcome Trust: on 31 July 2026 Hilleman advanced a vaccine candidate for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola into clinical-trial production, drawing on Merck's manufacturing know-how rather than its own core research budget .
What is Merck & Co.?
Does Merck make an Ebola vaccine?
How much is CEPI funding Merck's Bundibugyo vaccine candidate?
